Earth To Carter: They're Terrorists and They're Not Going To Change

Former President Jimmy Carter really needs to quit while he's behind, which means that he should have stuck to building houses for Habitat for Humanity from the moment he left office.

On foreign policy, and specifically dealing with the Islamist threat, he couldn't have been more hopelessly wrong for more years than anyone could possibly imagine.

His failures started with failing to deal with the mad mullahs when they sacked our embassy and held our citizens hostages for 444 days - launching a single solitary rescue mission that ended in disaster in the desert. The inability to mount a response has dogged the US ever since - and emboldened the Islamists ever since.

Yet, when he should stop showing just how out of touch he is with reality, he shows up with comments that are even more out of touch.

“If you sponsor an election or promote democracy and freedom around the world, then when people make their own decision about their leaders, I think that all the governments should recognize that administration and let them form their government,” Carter said. (Watch the former president cautiously defend Hamas — 4:35)

“If there are prohibitions — like, for instance, in the United States, against giving any money to a government that is controlled by Hamas — then the United States could channel the same amount of money to the Palestinian people through the United Nations, through the refugee fund, through UNICEF, things of that kind,” he added.

Carter expressed hope that “the people of Palestine — who already suffer ... under Israeli occupation — will not suffer because they are deprived of a right to pay their school teachers, policemen, welfare workers, health workers and provide food for people.”

Hamas is a terrorist group. Plain and simple. They want to destroy Israel at the earliest possible opportunity. That's not going to change.

Heck, Fatah never changed despite the fact that it separated itself into 'political' and 'military' wings. The PLO never lived up to its obligations and there's no reason to believe that Hamas would change.

And providing the Palestinians with aid under the current circumstances means that the choice to go with the more bloodthirsty terrorist group (even if it may be slightly less corrupt) eliminates any responsibility on the part of the Palestinians themselves to live with the repercussions of their decisions. They may have made the democratic decision to go with Hamas, but the rest of the world doesn't have to simply suck up and give in to every whim and whimper for aid. Cutting off aid may be the one thing that gets the Palestinians heading in the right direction - renoucning terrorism and recognizing the right of Israel to coexist.

Yet, there's one thing that I find curious. Hamas could simply lie about their intentions and start receiving aid tomorrow. They could say and do all the right things for the studio audience and get the aid flowing. Hamas refuses to budge on its core beliefs - namely the destruction of Israel and asserting an Islamic state on the land between the Jordan and the Med (for starters). And for that we should be thankful as there's never been a better time to show just where the Palestinians are coming from, and where they are headed.